Unexpected Events
by PadronEilion
Summary: Natsu's feeling sick, and not even Wendy can help. Could a surprise visit from a certain ice mage make all the difference?
1. Chapter 1

Natsu was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling with his arms crossed under his head. He could distantly hear the shouts of the other Fairy Tail members as they celebrated - well, Natsu didn't know what they were celebrating this time (not that Fairy Tail ever needed an excuse). He didn't particularly care, either. Normally he would be out there with the rest of them, eating, drinking, and getting into fights with as many people as possible, but not today. Today, Natsu was sick. And not the type of sick that could easily be cured by Wendy's healing magic - he didn't even have motion sickness. No, Natsu Dragneel was...lovesick.

He didn't even know how it had happened - or why. They went on jobs together; was he expected to cope with constantly being around them and not do anything? Natsu's musings were interuppted by Happy suddenly running into his room. "Natsu!" the cat exclaimed. "I've been looking everywhere for you, aren't you coming to join us?" he asked. Happy frowned when Natsu shook his head, but then he thought of something which was bound to get his friend outside: "Lucy's been worrying about you..." he said slyly. Happy didn't really know how Natsu would react to that, but he did not expect him to groan and roll over so he was lying face-first into a pillow. "Go away, Happy," Natsu mumbled, his voice muffled somewhat by the pillow. Happy blinked in surprise, sure he had heard wrong. "...Natsu?" he said softly, padding over. "Please just go, Happy. I'm sick," Natsu turned his head to speak to his blue friend, who was now feeling a little blue too. Happy frowned. "Do you want me to get Wendy?" he offered, feeling concerned - Natsu only ever got motion sick, and he wasn't even moving right now! "No! Just go away Happy, please," Natsu pleaded, hating himself as he caught the look of utter dejection on his best friend's face as he turned away and left the room.

Lucy was out joining the celebrations with the rest of the guild - Gildarts was back! - and she was currently deliberating whether or not it would be a good idea to accept Cana's offer to see who could drink the most, but then she saw Happy slowly making his way towards her. Lucy had never seen the cat look so sad, not even on the day he discovered flying fish don't taste as good as they look. "Happy, what's wrong? Where's Natsu?" she asked. Happy looked about ready to cry at the mention of Natsu's name, and Lucy feared something awful had happened. "Natsu won't come outside and he says he's sick and...and he told me to go away!" With a wail, Happy threw himself at Lucy's ankles and hugged them as he sobbed. Lucy looked bewildered and was about to offer to go and check on him - anything to get away from the crying cat! - when Gray, who had overheard the whole thing, stepped up. "I'll see to him. I'm sure the prospect of a fight will have him out here in no time," he said wryly, looking at Lucy. "And you can look after Happy," he smirked, before heading up to Natsu's house.

Natsu hadn't moved since Happy left, so he was still face-first in his pillow. It was getting a little harder to breathe, but Natsu was figuring that if he suffocated, he wouldn't have to deal with the current object of his affections. He heard his door open and close, and he sighed. "Happy, I said go away!" he said, lifting his head off the pillow slightly. There was a small chuckle from by his door. "Good thing I'm not Happy then," said an all too familiar voice. Natsu sat up properly, turning to face the intruder. Just as he had expected, Gray was leaning against his door, with his arms crossed over his chest (still clothed, thank goodness), and a smirk on his face. Natsu sighed - Gray was the last person he wanted to see right now...

Resisting the temptation to bury his face in the pillow again, Natsu frowned at Gray. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "I've already told Happy to go away, do I really have to repeat myself?" At that, Gray raised an eyebrow. "That's kind of why I'm here... Happy's your best friend and you've made him cry, and Gildarts is back and you've not come looking for a fight yet - what on earth is wrong with you?" he asked. Now it was Natsu who raised his eyebrows. "Why would I tell you?" he asked. "In fact, why are you even asking?" Gray, still smirking at him, shrugged. "Maybe I'm just a nosy bastard?" he suggested. "Or perhaps I'm just bored?" he shrugged again. "Who knows?"

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm sick. So go away." He noticed he didn't say please, as he had with Happy, but he figured that was because he didn't like Gray. At all. At least, that's what he'd been telling himself for a long time... Natsu was suddenly aware of Gray clicking his fingers in his face and his head snapped up. Gray had crossed the room without Natsu noticing and now stood in front of him with an amused expression on his face. "See something you like, Salamander?" Gray asked nonchalantly, looking down at Natsu. Natsu could feel blood rushing to his face but tried to pass it off on a put-on coughing fit. "What? You do keep staring at me..." Gray pointed out. Natsu's fake coughing turned into real as he choked and spluttered in surprise. "I wasn't staring at you! I was thinking!" he objected, which only caused Gray to laugh. "'Thinking' isn't something you're too good at though, is it Natsu?" he said, crouching down slightly so was looking directly at Natsu, who was continuing to blush - despite his best efforts to contain it.

Gray pressed a hand lightly, almost mockingly, against Natsu's cheek, looking for all the world as if he were cupping his face. "Gosh, you're feeling pretty hot. I guess you are sick after all..." he tried to look concerned, but couldn't stop a smirk creeping slowly back onto his face. "Maybe you need to cool down?" he teased, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Natsu could only stare at him, and although a voice in the back of his mind was telling him he ought to pull away, he found he just couldn't - or wouldn't? "Wh...what are you on about?" he asked, internally cursing himself for stuttering. Gray rolled his eyes, getting somewhat more serious now. "It's kind of obvious; I've seen how you look at me when you think I can't see you - when you think I'm not watching you back. Honestly, you're less discreet than Juvia!" Natsu found that his blush had only intensified when he realised Gray knew he watched him (and that he watched him back!), but at the mention of Juvia he frowned. "Gray, what about Juvia...?" he asked hesitantly, almost as if he feared the answer. He quickly discovered, however, that he had nothing to worry about: "If I cared about Juvia in the way I care about you, I wouldn't be here right now, okay?" Gray said reassuringly, tilting his face down towards Natsu's so that their foreheads now touched.

Natsu smiled slowly as he gazed into Gray's eyes, the irony of them being 'Fire and Ice' not lost on him. It was said that opposites were meant to attract, and Natsu wasn't disputing that. "Okay," he responded softly, his smile growing as Gray raised his other hand to Natsu's other cheek to cup his face tenderly – for that is very much what was happening now – and Natsu reached up to pull Gray closer to him. Their lips were merely millimetres apart, but neither moved to close the gap. Even now, their competitive natures meant both were determined to wait it out the longest, eager to see who had more self–restraint. After almost a minute of silent staring and willing the other to give in, Gray finally caved, brushing his lips against Natsu's. It was brief, over far too quickly for both Natsu and Gray (but Gray had to pretend he still had _some_ control), and Gray pulled back very slowly, as if inviting Natsu to make the next move.

"Your compulsive stripping certainly knows when to make an appearance…" Natsu was smirking now, looking pointedly at Gray's now bare chest. Momentarily surprised (he hadn't even been aware of it!), Gray quickly recovered and matched Natsu's smirk with one of his own. "You're not complaining, are you? I could always cover up if that's what you want." He pulled even further away from Natsu, reaching around for his discarded shirt. But before Gray could even blink, Natsu's arms had shot out and he caught hold of both of Gray's hands. "That's not what I want," he said sincerely. Gray raised an eyebrow as if to ask, 'what do you want then?' and with a smile Natsu leaned in towards him, simultaneously puling Gray back into him too. "_This_ is what I want," he said, as he suddenly kissed Gray, taking him by surprise.

If their first 'kiss' had been quick and oh-so brief, this was a slow and drawn–out one, and both boys closed their eyes in bliss as they finally got to experience what they had each wanted to for so long. But, like all good things, it couldn't last forever, and eventually they both had to pull away (albeit very reluctantly), their eyes slowly opening as they did so. They both had matching smiles on their faces, and Natsu was still blushing slightly – in fact, even Gray had gone a little pink. Gray stood up, knowing he should re–join the others before they came looking for either he or Natsu. "I'm going to head back out, before we have a search party after us. Are you going to join us now?" he asked, sounding more than a little hopeful. Natsu nodded. "Yeah, I need to apologise to Happy. And I'm feeling a lot better now, so why not come out and have some fun?" he added, grinning at Gray, who was the whole reason he was feeling better. "Good," Gray returned the grin, knowing exactly why Natsu was miraculously recovered. "I'll see you out there," he said as he headed over to the door.

"Gray!" Natsu called, just as he was opening the door. Gray turned to face him and saw Natsu was looking pointedly at him, with one eyebrow raised. "Forgetting something?" he asked, holding up Gray's shirt. He tossed it over and Gray caught it and pulled it over his head in one smooth, effortless motion. He nodded his thanks and turned, again, to leave, before pausing in the doorway. A wide smirk appeared on his face as he looked over his shoulder at Natsu. "I bet you're all fired up now, huh?" Gray winked at him and finally left, leaving Natsu staring after him, shocked but over–joyed at the turn the day at taken.


	2. Chapter 2

The celebrations were over now for an exhausted Lucy, who had left the party early and had collapsed onto her sofa the minute she got home. Natsu had eventually joined the celebrations and had apologised to Happy – and it was obvious he was forgiven as it wasn't long before Happy presented his best friend with a fish. A "get well soon present" he had called it. Relieved that the two of them were friends again Lucy had gone off to join Cana, noticing that Natsu and Gray had wandered off later in the evening – no doubt looking for a fight. They hadn't returned before she went home, though, but Lucy wasn't worried. For now, she just wanted to sleep. But a sudden knock at her door ruined all chances of that.

"Juvia? What are you doing here?" Lucy was surprised to see the other girl standing on her doorstop. She stepped back to let her in, and Juvia sniffed sadly. "Juvia came to talk to Love Rival about Gray-sama to find out why he loves her, not Juvia…" she said, looking morose, although her eyes flashed angrily at Lucy for a second. Lucy sighed – this again. "I'm _not _your 'love rival' – Gray doesn't even like me like that, and I only see him as a friend," she explained in exasperation, pretty sure this was about the 10th time in the past month she'd had to tell Juvia she wasn't interested in Gray.

"Besides, Lucy has Natsu." Another voice had chimed in and Lucy spun around to see Erza coming out of her bathroom wrapped only in a towel. "Erza! Why are you here?!" Lucy demanded, wondering how she never got any peace in her own home – if it wasn't Erza in the bathroom, then Gray was in the kitchen, or Natsu was in her bed… When that occurred to her, she raced over to her bed and threw back the covers just to check. Fortunately it was empty and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Then she processed what Erza had said. "I don't 'have' Natsu!" she said heatedly, glaring at Erza, who was by now fully clothed. "Juvia doesn't care about love rival and Natsu, Juvia only cares about Gray-sama!" Juvia wailed from where she stood by the door. Erza and Lucy exchanged a glance – this looked like it was going to be a long night.

Mere minutes later they were all situated around Lucy's kitchen table, each with a mug of hot liquid in front of them; Juvia staring gloomily into hers as through it would solve all her problems. Lucy was unsure what to say, but luckily Erza had no such qualms. "Frankly, you're too clingy. He's _never_ going to like you back if you don't even give him room to breathe," she said honestly, which caused Juvia to look up in surprise. "But Juvia _loves_ Gray-sama, Juvia doesn't want to be without him!" she exclaimed, which caused both Lucy and Erza to raise their eyebrows. "Juvia, you realise you've just proved Erza's point?" Lucy asked. Juvia opened her mouth to respond, but soon closed it as she realised she had nothing to say which would realistically be a good argument – nor did she particularly want to get into an argument with Erza, because that _never_ ended well for anybody.

"I suppose you're right," Juvia said sadly, managing to resist the temptation to stare back into her mug. "But I don't know what to _do_," she continued, hoping that Lucy or Erza would be able to help – that was why she was here, after all. "Just talk to him – " here Lucy was interrupted by a derisive snort from Erza, but she ignored her and kept talking. "_Talk_ to him, but don't be so possessive about it. And if you find out that he doesn't like you, then that's something you're just going to have to deal with," she finished firmly, and was surprised to see Juvia nodding (although it looked like she was doing so reluctantly), but she did feel quite pleased with herself for having managed to come up with some good advice.

"Juvia will take that advice," Juvia said as she stood up suddenly, downing the rest of her drink for courage – although what courage you could get from tea, she wasn't quite sure. Her plan had been to go now and speak to Gray-sama – no, just Gray – but she was halted by Erza slowly holding up a hand. "Wait a minute Juvia," she said. "We're not quite finished here – we still have Lucy to sort out." At this, Lucy turned to Erza with wide eyes and her mouth open in surprise. "What do you mean, sort me out?! I have nothing to sort!" she exclaimed, but realisation dawned when she saw Erza's pointed look. "Oh. You mean Natsu, don't you?" When Erza nodded, Lucy did the opposite and shook her head, sighing. "Look, I don't like Natsu like that, he's just a friend," she tried to explain, but her friends were having none of it.

"Sorry Lucy, but you definitely do – it's obvious to pretty much everyone, except from you and him," Erza said and Juvia nodded – with a lot more enthusiasm this time.. Lucy was scowling and wanted to object, but there was a part of her beginning to wonder if perhaps she really did like him as more than a friend – after all, she thought, he was always looking out for her, and now she thought about it, he did have a really nice smile… _**NO!**_ Lucy mentally shook herself; she couldn't afford to think like that. Literally. She had rent to pay, and if something bad were to happen between them, she didn't know if she would be able to face going on jobs with him, and she wasn't yet comfortable with taking a big job on her own, so it looked like any thought of…of a _relationship _would have to wait until she was sure everything would work out.

"…and so I have a dare for you both. I dare you each to speak to Natsu and Gray and tell them how you really feel. Tonight." Lucy blinked and realised she'd missed half of what Erza, who had a very smug and almost evil smile on her face, had said. "Um, what?" Lucy managed to get say, before a look from Erza (which basically said "weren't you listening?", and Lucy wasn't stupid enough to say she wasn't!) prevented her from going further. She noticed that Juvia was looking pretty pale at the prospect. "Juvia can't do that," Juvia mumbled, with a terrified expression on her face. Erza shook her head. "Of course you can Juvia – and you will," she paused, smirking. "Otherwise, as a forfeit, you can't speak to him for a whole week." Lucy genuinely thought Juvia was about to pass out at that; she had never seen anybody look so ill. Then Erza turned to Lucy but before she could even open her mouth to give Lucy her forfeit, Lucy suddenly spoke up. "Don't worry, we'll do it – _both_ of us will. On the condition that you confront Jellal about his 'fiancé' the next time you see him." Swiftly standing up, Lucy caught Juvia's arm and pulled her out of the house, leaving a stunned Erza standing alone in the kitchen.

Lucy wasn't terribly sure where that sudden confidence had come from, but she suspected it had something to do with just how much she had had to drink with Cana only an hour or so earlier. Whatever the reason, she couldn't back down now, and she couldn't let Juvia either – it would very likely kill Juvia to have to go a day without talking to Gray, never mind an entire _week._ It was very clear that the party was still going on, but the two girls kept to the shadows, not wanting to be seen lest someone asked what they were up to. They were heading in the direction Lucy had seen both Natsu and Gray go off in earlier, but whether or not they would still be there was a different story – so just in case, they would take it in turns to take sly looks between the trees to see if either boy could be spotted at the party. As of yet, there was no sign of Natsu or Gray, although Happy had been spotted talking to Carla – it was odd that he wasn't with Natsu, Lucy thought, but she wasn't about to go over and ask him about it! "Juvia thinks we should just give up…" Juvia said hesitantly, her face still ashen, after they'd been searching (to no avail) for nearly ten minutes. Lucy shook her head, still holding onto Juvia's arm, but whether that was to stop her from running away or to provide herself with some support she wasn't quite sure. "No Juvia, we need to do it – I don't know about you, but I don't feel like crossing Erza!" Lucy said, trying to make light of it. "Also, try to stop referring to yourself in third person…it's really distracting," she added, almost as an afterthought. Juvia nodded. "Juv… _I_ will try…try not…" she trailed off slowly, and Lucy looked at her in concern. She was about to ask what was wrong, but when Juvia just pointed ahead of them wordlessly she looked ahead to see what had so stunned her friend.

Whatever Lucy had expected to see, it wasn't… _this_, and she had to supress a gasp – although it was very difficult. Juvia and Lucy were still standing on the outskirts of a small clearing, but they were hidden enough by the trees that they could observe, but not be observed themselves. They had indeed found Natsu and Gray, but certainly not how they had expected to find them… For one thing, they weren't fighting. The only thing that was in anyway familiar was that Gray was shirtless – but so was Natsu?! Lucy was very much distracted by that sight, but upon seeing the tears forming in Juvia's eyes she quickly pulled herself together. Juvia's grip on Lucy's arm tightened as they watched the scene in front of them unfold – Gray was sitting atop a log with Natsu straddling him, and both boys had their arms wrapped around each other. But not wrapped around each other's necks, as Lucy had expected; instead they were locked in a passionate embrace, totally oblivious to their surroundings.

At least, they were oblivious until Juvia, who was pretty much beside herself with grief, let out a small noise of surprise which carried across the otherwise silent clearing. Natsu and Gray sprang apart suddenly, Natsu almost tumbling to the ground as he tried to jump off Gray's lap, and he would have fallen if it weren't for Gray reaching out to catch him. If it weren't for how surreal this was, and how upset Juvia was, Lucy thought she would have found the whole thing rather sweet. "Juvia!" Gray exclaimed, shocked to see them both there. "What are you doing here?!" But Juvia was too upset to answer, and instead turned and ran back through the trees, tears blurring her vision. Lucy was torn between staying and finding out what on earth was going on, or going after Juvia – she wasn't exactly close with her, but it was obvious how much she cared for Gray, so seeing him with Natsu would undoubtedly have hurt her. After a slight hesitation Lucy ran after Juvia, ignoring Natsu's cry of "Lucy, wait!"

With a sigh, Natsu sat beside Gray, subconsciously leaning against him. He was aware of Gray's arm around his shoulders and he smiled, in spite of what had happened. "Are you going to speak to Juvia?" Natsu asked as he looked up at Gray. Gray nodded and lowered his head down to Natsu's. "Yes, but not right now," he replied. "I have something important to take care of first," he continued, before softly kissing Natsu, thinking as he did so that it was something he would never get tired of.


End file.
